Daily Times

All you have to do is see how crowds thronged to receive Maryam Nawaz in Daska to know which way people are going to swing the by-election in NA-75. That alone ought to suffice to throw the selected government into a tailspin, which is pretty much what is happening.

Yet even if you give the selected ruling party the benefit of the doubt, just for a moment, and disregard widespread rumours of panic and threats of rebellion in its ranks, then you will have to agree that some PTI loyalists are deliberately trying to harm it. Why else would they resort to using official state and bureaucratic machinery to try and influence by-polls in Punjab? Surely everybody remembers how Imran Khan used to claim ad nauseam that PML-N, when in power, used status apparatus to its advantage at just such occasions. But now that the shoe is on the other foot his own party is shamelessly doing what he used to accuse others of doing all the time.

Yet this is just another one of his famous U-turns; just like signing with the IMF after promising that he would die before going begging to international lending institutions, throwing hundreds of millions in development funds to MNAs and MPAs after calling this practice the fountainhead of all corruption, and so, so much more. None of this surprises any of us in the opposition, of course, since we have been warning people about this trend since before PTI was selected. But now the people have also started to see the truth in our claims for themselves.

I have personally gone door to door in Daska along with other PML-N workers during the campaign for the NA-75 by-election. And having gauged public sentiment for myself, I can tell you just how fed up people are with the rising prices and rampant corruption in government departments. Let me also remind the selected ruling party that if it thinks it can pull the wool over people’s eyes by using the state machinery for its own bidding then it is very mistaken.

Let me also remind the selected ruling party that if it thinks it can pull the wool over people’s eyes by using the state machinery for its own bidding then it is very mistaken

For everybody knows the truth behind a number of rather unfortunate recent events. Foremost among them is the farcical attempt to arrest PML-N worker Attaullah Tarrar. He has been coordinating the campaign for the by-elections, also liaising with PPP in a historic joint effort to protect democratic norms against what is considered an irresistible onslaught by the so-called establishment. PTI leaders in the area could sense how Tarrar was at the forefront of the campaign that was slowly taking the game away from them in Daska, and tried to put a spanner in the works by using the oldest and dirtiest trick in the book.

The way the selected ruling party has been falling all over itself to distance itself from what it is now calling “not an arrest” says it all. First they had Tarrar picked up, taken to a police station, and then released because they had nothing on him. Then the selected government employed its usual spin and said it wasn’t Tarrar but his guards that were rounded up because they were carrying weapons. But when they found out that all weapons with the guards were duly licensed they went back on their word once again and accused Tarrar of hopping onto the police vehicle himself and then driven to the station. They have become the laughing stock of the whole district.

They also seem to think that getting Usman Dar on the ground will change things. Nobody is fooled by his resignation as advisor to the selected prime minster, since everybody knows that he’ll be back in the coveted seat as soon as the election is over. In fact, Dar is meant to use this fact, that he will be back in the cabinet very soon, as leverage over local officials.

The by-polls in Punjab, one for a national assembly seat and the other for the provincial assembly, have come at a fitting time since the present electoral cycle is just around the half way mark. And they will provide the perfect litmus test for the people’s take on the performance of the government so far. The opposition, for its part, is not intimidated at all even as the state is being used against it. Instead, it remains committed to restoring democracy in letter and spirit in the country so the people can get into the habit of holding their leaders accountable when they fail in the most basic public service delivery.

PML-N, especially, boldly took this bull by the horn and went directly to the people for the by-polls. It has fielded women for both seats, which goes to show that it is celebrating the spirit of democracy and fair representation even in the face of blatantly fascist harassment on the part of the government. PTI’s support base has been chipping way for quite a while, which is no doubt making some of its selectors very nervous, but its desperation in Daska was evident for everybody to see and these by-elections will mark the turning point of this selected regime.

The writer is a LUMS graduate and currently serves as PMLN MPA. She is a close aide of Maryam Nawaz and tweets at @hinaparvezbutt